36 | JANUARY 14 • 2021 

Plying similar terrain is Harry 
Tomashevsky’s The Yiddish 
King Lear (1935), in which a 
possessive patriarch’s insistent 
steering of his daughters’ lives 
(he says early on that women 
should be “ornaments”) sheds 
light on some troubling flipsides 
to strict insistence on tradition. 
The film, based on the play 
of the same name, is heavy on 
melodrama, as are several simi-
lar entries in the set all set in the 
U.S.: Eli Eli, Motel the Operator, 
Her Second Mother and Three 
Daughters (the last one, made 
in 1950, effectively marked the 
end of the Yiddish film produc-
tion era in the U.S.). But even in 
their modest aspirations, these 
films showcase a broader range 
of works made by and about the 
American Jewish diaspora. 
Particularly strong in this is 
1940’s American Matchmaker, 
a tender and sly musical com-
edy by Edgar G. Ulmer (his 

fourth Yiddish film, made five 
years prior to his best-known 
work, the vicious noir Detour). 
Nat Silver, a serial New York 
bachelor reeling from an eighth 
broken engagement, turns to 
matchmaking as a profession so 
he can better understand just 
what makes a marriage. He inev-
itably falls for a client as those 
around him work to steer him 
toward success.
This feathery premise, along 
with splendid casting and its 
considered direction, grant 
Matchmaker a surprising ability 
to disarm. Casually showcas-
ing generations of diasporic 
Jewish experience and varying 
approaches to immigrant life 
— evidenced by meek Nat’s cod-
dling, more traditional-minded 
mother and his worldly, barb-
tongued sister — it’s the small 
details in casting, writing and 
performance that allow the 
film to accumulate unexpected 

power. 
These Yiddish films, like the 
language they embrace, are 
filled with the spirit of persever-
ance — artistic expressions of a 
people who narrowly escaped 
being entirely snuffed out. Taken 
together, their cohesion across 
wide gulfs makes a startlingly 

concrete case for the potency of 
shared society, identity and cul-
ture, capturing at the same time 
the essence of much preserved 
and lost. 

‘The Jewish Soul: Ten Classics of 
Yiddish Cinema’ (with English and 
Hebrew subtitles) is available for pur-
chase online at kinolorber.com.

YIDDISH FILMS continued from page 35

KINO LORBER

American 

Matchmaker

TANYA ROBERTS R.I.P.; 
BYE 2020; MORE SHELDON
As I write this (Jan. 5), actress 
Tanya Roberts has just died. 
On Jan. 3, there were erro-
neous reports she had just 
died. Her boyfriend, Lance 
O’Brien, thought a hospital 
representative said she was 
dead, when really the rep 
was telling him her condi-
tion was grave. O’Brien told 
Roberts’ publicist that she 
died, and the publicist told 
the media. On Jan. 4, O’Brien 
was talking to Inside Edition 
when the hospital called him 
and told him Roberts was 
alive. He burst into tears on 
camera. But she died later 
that evening.
 Roberts had some good 
roles: she was an “angel” 
in the last season (1981) 
of Charlie’s Angels: she 

co-starred in the cult fantasy 
classic The Beastmaster 
(1982) opposite actor Marc 
Singer, now 72; she was the 
“Bond Girl” in A View to a Kill 
(1985); and she was a cast 
member of That ’70s Show. 
She played the mother of 
lead character Donna (Laura 
Prepon, 40) from 1998-2001. 
Years later, she revealed 
she left the series because 
her husband, writer Barry 
Roberts, was terminally ill 
with encephalitis. Barry, like 
Tanya, was from the Bronx. 
A source who knew Barry in 
high school told me he was 
Jewish. Barry and Tanya wed 
in 1974. She nursed him for 
five years until he died in 
2006.
 Tanya’s death led to some 
record-checking by me. For 
decades, her bios repeat-
ed the same thing — that 
she was born in 1955, the 
daughter of a Jewish mother 
and Irish father. Turns out 
that Tanya, born Victoria 
Blum, was born in 1949. Her 

father, Oscar Blum, was 
Jewish. Her mother, Dorothy 
Smith, was English, and it’s 
unclear if she was Jewish. I 
don’t fault Roberts for shav-
ing six years off her age in 
youth-obsessed Hollywood. 
 The Amazon Prime spe-
cial Yearly Departed, which 
began streaming Dec. 30, is 
worth your time. It features 
seven female comedians 
speaking at a mock funeral 
for 2020, a truly bad year. 
The show’s creator, Bess 
Kalb, 33, says it was inspired 
by a remark by the late 

Christopher Hitchens, who 
said: Women aren’t funny. 
Not every joke in the show 
is hilarious, but they hit more 
than they miss. Starring 
are Sarah Silverman, 50, 
Natasha Leggero, 47, and 
Tiffany Haddish, 41, plus hon-
orary tribe member Rachel 
Brosnahan (Mrs. Maisel). 
 The fourth season of CBS’ 
comedy Young Sheldon, 
a spin-off of The Big Bang 
Theory, resumes Jan. 13 
(8 p.m.). The episode finds 
Sheldon, now 11, starting 
college. Wallace Shawn, 77, 
who has a recurring role as 
Dr. Sturgis, Sheldon’s mentor, 
has a prominent role in this 
episode. The season’s pre-
miere revealed that the adult 
Sheldon Cooper named his 
son Leonard, in honor of his 
friend, Dr. Leonard Hofstader. 
Sheldon wanted to also 
honor his favorite actor and 
name his son Leonard Nimoy 
Cooper. But this was vetoed 
by his wife, Amy (Mayim 
Bialik, 45). 

ARTS&LIFE
CELEBRITY JEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

IMDB

Tanya 
Roberts